U.S. House to vote on self-driving car legislation next week

(Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles, congressional aides said.

The bill, which was passed unanimously by a House panel in July, would allow automakers to obtain exemptions to deploy up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year, a cap that would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually over three years. Automakers and technology companies including General Motors Co <GM.N> and Alphabet Inc's' self-driving unit Waymo <GOOGL.O> have been pushing for new federal rules making it easier to deploy self-driving technology, while some consumer groups have sought additional safeguards.